ANA - All Nippon Airways (NH, Tokyo Haneda) along with Philippine Airlines (PR, Manila Ninoy Aquino International), Air New Zealand (NZ, Auckland International), China Airlines (CI, Taipei Taoyuan) and EVA Air (BR, Taipei Taoyuan) must face a class-action lawsuit from passengers accusing them of price-fixing on trans-Pacific flights.
In his ruling issued in San Francisco last week, US District Judge Charles Breyer denied a motion by the five airlines to dismiss the suit on the grounds that all the passengers' claims were pre-empted by federal regulation, which requires airlines to file certain international fares with the US Department of Transportation (DoT).
According to Reuters, Breyer ruled that claims over fares that were not filed with the DoT, in addition to claims pertaining to fuel surcharges, were valid while dismissing those linked to fares that were filed with the DoT.
Breyer also exempted certain fares to the Philippines and Japan from price-fixing claims.
The first class-action suits over alleged price-fixing of trans-Pacific fares were filed in 2007, and multiple cases were consolidated in a multi-district litigation in San Francisco in 2008. The plaintiffs claimed that airlines used alliances, trade associations and other means to fix prices.
The suit originally named 13 airlines, but eight of those have settled for a total of USD39.5million.